System
requirements
Directory Structure
Droplets application
files
User Manager
files
Licensing files
Log files
Registry keys
Starting and Stopping the Server
The Droplets UI Server is a presentation server for the fully remote delivery of rich, real-time server-side GUIs written with the Droplets API. It must include a number of files, which are by default installed at C:\Program Files:
•
The Droplets Server executable;
• Application DLLs (which are written by your programmers);
• User Manager DLLs (which are provided by Droplet Inc. with the
Server);
• Licensing files;
• Log files;
• A
set of registry key entries.
| Directory | Should Contain: |
| Droplet\Server (default location C:Program Files) |
DropletConsole.exe
(Server executable) |
| Droplet\Logs\system | systemyyyymmdd.log |
| Droplet\Logs\access | accessyyyymmdd.log |
| Droplet\Server\Apps | DLLs for all hosted applications |
If you're writing applications with the Droplets Java API, you'll also need a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) set-up as outlined in Java Support.
You
can also deploy multiple Droplets Servers in a production environment
with the use of a load balancer. See load
balancing for more information.
System Requirements
Each Droplets Server in your deployment should have a machine dedicated to it. The maximum number of simultaneous connections per Droplets Server will depend on the power of the machines on which they're deployed and the workload involved in each Droplet application being served. Regardless, the following system requirements must be adhered to:
• Machine: 500MHz Pentium II or above, 128MB RAM
• Platform: Windows NT/2000/XP
• Firewall: Port 8194 must be open for Droplets Platform communication
Directory Structure
The
Droplets Server executable, DropletConsole.exe,
should remain in the root of your Droplets Server directory (Droplet\Server\DropletConsole.exe).
User Manager DLLs and the registration executable are placed in the
appropriate directory upon installing DropletConsole.exe.
You'll also need to place your Droplet application jars (or DLLs) within
the directory structure.
All
Droplets hosted by your Droplets Server(s) must be packaged as either
Java jars or C++ .dll
files and typically reside in the Droplet\Server\apps
directory for
each of your Droplets Servers (though this location can be altered by
changing the setting of a registry key -- see the Registry
Key Appendix for more information on how to customize the location
of your hosted applications). Once your application files have been
placed in the appropriate directory, the Droplets Server will load the
application logic on start-up and thenceforth host the application.
The Droplets Platform's User Manager files are used for authentication. Make sure that all three have been automatically placed in Droplet\Server within your Droplets Platform installation.
For Java
UtMd5.java provides MD5 hashing encryption for Passwords in the Droplets Server authentication.
UtBase64.java provides base-64 encoding for MD5-encrypted data.
For C++
DropletUserManagerDb.dll connects the Droplets Server to your authentication database.
DropletUserManagerFixture.dll is the alternate DLL file that the Droplets Server uses when an application does not use authentication.
encryptionw32.dll provides MD5 hashing encryption (and base-64 encoding) for User Names and Passwords in the Droplets Server authentication system.
Important
Note: The UserManagerDb
DLL file works natively with Oracle databases, but in most commercial
deployments you'll want to substitute it with a custom User Manager
of your own. This allows you to use any database and any encryption
mechanism that you wish. The full details of integrating Droplets
with your existing authentication mechanism are outlined in
authentication below. You
can learn how to quickly create your own Droplets User Manager class
in Writing
a Droplets User Manager.
Once you have installed the Droplets Server, you will need to register your Droplets Server by running DropletsServerRegistration.exe, which is located at Droplet/Server. Once you have registered, two license files will be generated and placed in Droplet/Server, allowing you to run a commercial Droplets deployment. The two files are as follows:
LICENSE.KEY contains encrypted account information for each of your Droplets Servers, uniquely identifying each.
METER.LOG is a standard log file that gathers usage statistics for licensing purposes.
Important
Note: Neither of these files will work if you copy them from
one machine to another. If these files are not in Droplet\Server
for each of your Droplets Server installations, use the DropletServerRegistration.exe
file to
create them, using the valid account code that you will already have
received from
Droplets.
The Droplets Server automatically generates a daily Droplets Platform system log upon its initial start-up that records both platform and application-specific error messages. This is a standard log, i.e. a text file that provides potentially useful, human-readable information, including the date and time of the event, the application (or Droplets Server) on which the event occurred, and a detailed description. A separate log file is generated for each day the Droplets Server is deployed; their naming convention is as follows: systemyyyymmdd.log. The log file's default location is Droplet\Logs\system, but it can also be placed elsewhere via the Registry. The following registry keys allow you to set its location as you wish (either through your OS's registry or a .reg file as outlined in the Registry Keys appendix). Logdir represents the directory in which all log files (system and access) are placed, while SystemLogDir represents the specific folder in which the system logs will be placed:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Droplet\DropletServer\Logs
"Logdir" = "c:\Droplet\Logs"
"SystemLogDir" = "system"
The
Droplets API provides calls that allow developers to record application-specific
events to the Droplets Platform log as well.
The Droplets Server also generates daily usage logs — named accessyyyymmdd.log — which record session start and end events. Using this log, you can discern the number of connections, time of day of connections, user names and IP addresses. The usage log was designed to be read by WebTrends products, software for the analysis of network usage statistics, but is also human readable.
The access logs are generated by default in Droplet\Logs\access. This location can be over-ridden via the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Droplet\DropletServer\Logs
"Logdir" = "c:\Droplet\Logs"
"AccessLogDir" = "access"
When you install the Droplets SDK onto a machine, a number of registry keys are automatically set. The complete set of registry keys, their parameters, default value and purpose can be found in the registry Appendix.
Most of
these settings should remain intact, but you can customize some of them
further as desired, either directly through the Windows OS Registry or
via a .reg file.
Development
Environment
By default the Droplets Server runs on Windows as a console application
which can be started from the Start menu at Programs | Droplets | DropletsServer(Console).
Production
Environment
For production deployments, it is recommended that you install the Droplets
Server as a Windows service. This is done by opening a command-line prompt,
going to the DropletServer\bin
directory, and typing:
dropletconsole -install
You will probably also want the Droplets Server to startup automatically whenever the Windows machine is rebooted. In order to do this, you will need to go to the DropletServer\bin directory and type:
dropletconsole -startup auto
To manually start and stop the Droplets Server, go to the same directory and type:
dropletconsole -start
dropletconsole -stop